Title: Symrise Opens Shanghai Creative Center

Symrise has announced that its new creative center in Shanghai, China will open on June 18, 2008. The new facility will house all functions and creative resources of the scent and care division for the Chinese market. It will also serve as the newly established regional hub for Northeast Asia. This means the center will be the new home for fragrance development, application, consumer research, marketing and sales for the division. Fifty-one employees will work at the new facility; by 2013 this number is expected to increase to 70. The creative center will also house Symrise’s newly-founded consumer research facility, the global Navigator center. The Navigator documents consumer trends, analyzes consumers’ language about fragrances and flavors, studies the acceptance of products in different categories and provides sensory criteria which are helpful tools in positioning brand products. The Navigator’s primary task is to give Symrise insightful information about preferences and consumer trends in the Asian growth markets such as China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Of the new center, Symrise scent and care global president Achim Daub said, “China is one of the most important growth markets for Symrise. Opening the new creative center in Shanghai is proof of the critical role that the entire Asian market plays in the development of our business. It also shows that we do not see creativity and innovation as decorative details—they are an indispensible part of our corporate strategy.”